South Africa: bill sparks concerns over transparency as it changes disclosure criteria for party funding

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00:00But first, ahead of the May 29th election, South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa

00:05has signed off on a new law, bringing in big changes to the rules about political funding.

00:10Opposition parties were against the bill, saying that it makes the system more opaque.

00:15But Cyril Ramaphosa says that it's in fact opening up the political space and levelling

00:20the playing field as it allows independent candidates to, once elected, access the multi-party

00:26democracy fund.

00:29Jan Vensel breaks it all down for us.

00:33President Cyril Ramaphosa has effectively amended the Political Party Funding Act to

00:38allow independent candidates to access the multi-party democracy fund, once elected.

00:45This is the first time that independent candidates are contesting the South African national

00:49elections.

00:50But many parties have been calling the bill unconstitutional, as it essentially means

00:55that parties no longer have to report or keep records on how much funding they've

00:59received, which some fear means that limits are very unlikely to be followed.

01:05Critics fear this loss of transparency is the opposite of what South Africa's historically

01:10corruption-prone political landscape needs.

01:14Campaigns are expensive.

01:15A national campaign for the governing ANC or its rival, the DA, could easily run to

01:19around 3 million euros.

01:22Its stakes are being ramped up ever higher ahead of the election on the 29th.

01:26The ANC has been the last party to release its campaign posters or T-shirts, doing so

01:31just about a week ago, pretty late in the game.

01:34Many have even voiced concern about the financial health of the ruling party.

01:39But the ANC says the delay in getting their campaign promo material out was because they

01:44needed more time to cover their national footprint, while also admitting that new legislation

01:49has made it much harder to raise funds.

02:19While the new act gives the president the power to set a new limit and threshold, he

02:40can only do so if instructed by parliament.

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